New Year is a Time for Review

I have been thinking about a question asked by Scott Bourne on the “This Week In Photography” blog recently. Scott asked us to reflect on the simple question, what was your best photograph last year? I think its a really helpful question since we spend so much time putting folders full of images on our drives that we may let them pass by in a blur. When I process a folder I whittle it down to my few favourites and I’m really unlikely to look at the rest of them again. Some I print as gifts for others, and my favourites I tend to store as a backup, full resolution on my Flickr account; some I intend to, but forget to get round to doing so.

Among this mass of photographs, which I think are my best work from last year, must be one or two that I think would represent the very best of what I have tried to do. Scott Bourne has challenged us/me to choose the one that I feel represents my best work. Why is it so hard to select your one favourite, I have tried but failed. My compromise has been to choose my favourite portrait, Landscape, Animal and Flower since these are probably my favourite categories.

Now come on, think back yourself, what is your favourite picture, or at least your favourites in different categories? Perhaps identifying these will help us to set a target or a benchmark for next year.

Portrait:

Landscape:

Animal:

Flower:

Perhaps next week I’ll look back and decide that I have got this hopelessly wrong, but I hope I’ve learned something from the exercise of analysing what I like? I’m going to print these and hang them somewhere, why not do the same to remind yourself of this year’s standard.